For a landscape to be healthy, people must be physically and socially active in it.
Most development proposals for Ebbsfleet acknowledge this. Nevertheless small human scale activities and connections are often not taken into consideration as plans evolve. For example: a ramble, a stroll, a short-cut, a trail ride, a roll, a child’s first tentative bike ride, a scramble, a dog walk, a slide, a perambulation. However these small scale interventions will be swept aside whilst dealing with complex traffic engineering, budgetary, or architectural constraints.
Micro active moments are a network of interconnected local routes, walks, tracks, trails and journeys placing small-scale daily routines at the centre of the life of the people of Ebbsfleet Garden City. For instance the routes, jumps, bridges, rocks, circuits, connections, tracks, via ferrata, and ramps, will not be a dotted line on a plan, a sign, or a possibility. They will be a set of built design interventions: Immutable, eye catching, engaging, inviting and exciting.
The activities will connect all of the garden city and its surroundings with a set of interlocking micro-links. Above all they will connect people in the landscape through activity, combating isolation and its association with poor mental health. For example an elderly person strolling past the BMX circuit, meeting a young parent pushchair jogging.
In all instances the infrastructure will act as a strong facilitator, activator and instigator and is designed to combine activities. It will offer a healthy layer of engagement with the landscape for the new garden city, its surroundings, and people.